Russia snubs nuclear summit

The Russian government has refused to send a delegation to a nuclear security summit hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama for the first time since it began in 2010.

“Russia’s decision to certainly not participate at a high-level we believe is a missed opportunity for Russia,” said U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, told journalists Wednesday night, according to a White House press release. “Frankly, all they’re doing is isolating themselves in not participating as they have in the past.”

The summit, which runs Thursday and Friday and will be attended by European leaders, China, Japan and South Korea, among others, will focus on preventing terrorist organizations getting access to nuclear weapons.

“Having this many leaders together at once provides us an important opportunity, in the wake of the recent attacks in Brussels and other countries, to address how we can enhance our capabilities to work together to confront the threat posed by ISIL,” Rhodes said.

The Russians say they won’t attend the summit because it is no longer relevant.

“We don’t really know what the point of this summit is,” Mikhail Ulyanov, a director of the Russian foreign ministry told the Russian press. “These are not topics that need to be discussed at the highest level,” he said, adding that the summit was more suitable for physicists and engineers, not politicians.